The Canadian Light Source at the University of Saskatchewan was able to help researchers at the University of Guelph synthesize a naturally occurring painkiller.

Dr. Tariq Akhtar says within cannabis, there are trace amounts of a certain compound called cannabistilbene. This compound offers relief from acute and chronic pain, however it exists in such small quantities, so it would be impractical to harvest naturally.

“You can only get a few dozen milligrams if you were to grow an acre of cannabis. That’s how scarce it is in the plant.”

He explains that, using the Canadian Light Source, they were able to look closely at how the molecule is structured, and recreate it in a lab- no harvesting required. The process involved synthesizing the molecule in a test tube using two enzymes. He explains that the test tube molecule is not a biosimilar; it is an identical molecule to what is found in nature.

“It’s a fairly clean way of doing it. We hope, through improvements on that platform, to do it in a way that’s way more efficient than what nature can do and, ultimately, to provide molecules like this and others to people who suffer from acute and chronic pain.”

Akhtar says this compound might even be better than your typical painkiller, as it is a dual inhibitor that won’t give users side effects.

“We believe that developing molecules like this will be a superior option than taking over-the-counter non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs that typically only target one pathway of inflammation.”

The synthesized molecule has been through preclinical testing and shows promise for its future use in humans, but Ahktar says that stage is still quite far away.